While Ukraine's banning of Russian citizens from entering the country to take part in the OSCE election monitoring mission is "without precedent," it does not violate international law, and there will still be OSCE observers. Only two members of the team were Russian citizens.

Maria Zakharova

Spokesperson, Russian Foreign Ministry

"We are seeing a massive campaign on Russian information resources in Germany. It is being conducted with the German state’s participation, and a campaign is being staged to suppress the voice of the Russian and Russian language media."

The German press’s criticism of Russia Today (RT) Deutsch and Sputnik is not a staged campaign but the reaction of independent journalists against Kremlin’s use of media means for propaganda purposes and disinformation. Similar concerns arise in France and Britain.

Konstantin Kosachev

"Guaido’s status cannot be determined from abroad, whether by the president of the United States or any other country. It can be determined only by the people of Venezuela and only by constitutional means. In this sense, for Russia the presidential status of Guaido doesn’t exist."

The U.S. is just one of many countries and international organizations which recognize the interim presidency of Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaido. Many of these countries didn't recognize Maduro’s controversial reelection in 2018. His original term ended on January 10, 2019.

WikiLeaks mischaracterized the MSNBC host and RIA Novosti enhanced the misinformation. Both relayed only part of the program, ignoring actual U.S. government warnings cited in the program. Maddow’s concerns about a potential Russian threat were not baseless.

Yevgeny Prigozhin

Russian businessman

“The press service also noted that in the trial against ‘Concord Management and Consulting,' special prosecutor Robert Mueller 'supposedly collected more than four million documents, which is more than 12 million printed pages, over 80% of which the defense is forbidden to familiarize itself with.'"

After his lawyer’s testy exchange with the judge presiding over the 2016 election meddling case against Russian firm Concord Management and Consulting, company head and “Putin’s chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin misleads, accusing U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller of withholding evidence from the defense.

While the Twitter account calls itself “In Venezuela,” it publicly identifies its physical location as based in Toronto, Canada. This is also stated at the top of the “about” section on the writer’s blog.

RIA Novosti

Russian state news agency

“(The Wall Street Journal) noted that the head of the government (Hungary’s Orban) has been receiving orders (from the U.S.) to counter Chinese cyber espionage and support Ukraine as a counter to Russia.”

RIA Novosti “quoted” a Wall Street Journal article, attributing to it wording that was not in the original piece. The U.S. cannot “order” foreign governments to follow certain policies, although the Hungarian leader objected to "pressure" from the U.S.

Dmitry Kiselyov

TV News Presenter, CEO, Rossiya Segodnya state information agency

“The new American fashion is hostages. Back at the beginning of the 21st century, only bandits and terrorists took hostages. They have a goal -- they seize a person or several and demand the fulfillment of their wishes from others.”

None of the Russian people Kiselyov names are “hostages.” One was convicted in court, another pleaded guilty, and one has not even been arrested. Reasonable protests have been made in the fourth case, but there have been no demands from the U.S. as terms for release.

Sputnik cried “censorship” after Facebook removed 364 Facebook pages and accounts for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” But while Sputnik charged the pages were removed for their politically-motivated content, Facebook says it was a matter of “misrepresentations of their identities.”

Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union have persecuted dissidents, sometimes using capital punishment. Modern Russia has abolished the death penalty, although a number of dissidents and journalists have been murdered, their cases remaining unsolved.

RT Russian Service

State-owned media outlet

“In December 2018, in the Odessa region, unknown persons organized a pogrom at a church in the village of Semenovka, Belgorod-Dniester district. The attackers stole donations and desecrated the church premises.”

The incident in the Odessa region was totally unrelated to the fire in Kyiv, and it was an act of vandalism.” No motive has been established. In Kyiv, police detained a 24-year-old homeless man who is accused of setting fire to some mattresses.